Denver's Offense Has Never Belonged to One Player
From Doug Moe's motion sets to Jokic's handoffs, the Nuggets have only won by sharing the ball, and tonight's preseason game against the Bulls tests whether this group still does.
Denver visits a lesson it has been teaching itself since 1980: that no single scorer, however gifted, wins here alone. The Bulls arrive for a preseason game that matters less for the score than for showing which groups still move the ball the way last season's best lineups did.
A City That Measures Offense by Motion, Not Volume
Moe's teams never needed one superstar to carry the scoring load; English and Vandeweghe both cleared 25 points a game inside an offense built on constant motion. Jokic's version works the same way, through reads rather than isolation. Last season's top lineup, Jokic with Murray, Cameron Johnson, Peyton Watson and Spencer Jones, scored at a 136.7 rate across 171 minutes together on the identical idea: the ball finds whoever is open, not whoever is the best scorer on the floor.
The 1994 Upset Proved Connection Beats Talent
Denver's best-known upset came without a true superstar. Mutombo, Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf and LaPhonso Ellis beat the top-seeded Seattle SuperSonics 98-94 in overtime in Game 5 of the 1994 playoffs, the first 8-seed to topple a 1-seed. That series is the clearest precedent for why Denver's roster still prizes fit over scoring punch - Christian Braun, Cameron Johnson and Aaron Gordon fill this year's rotation for the same reason Bryant Stith filled one in 1994.
What Tonight Against Chicago Is Actually Testing
Tonight's preseason game against Chicago carries no standings weight, which is exactly why it is useful: it shows whether Denver's passing habits hold with reshuffled minutes. Jokic's 10.7 assists a game last season extended a lineage that runs through Moe's locker room - a Denver team wins when the ball moves, not when one player decides to shoot it. Everything since 1974, when the franchise took the Nuggets name ahead of joining the NBA, has pointed toward the team now built around Jokic and Murray, still chasing the second title that first identity never delivered.
Has Denver's offense always been built around passing?
Yes - Doug Moe's motion offense in the early 1980s set the pattern Jokic's teams follow today, valuing ball movement over isolation scoring.
What happened the last time Denver won without a dominant superstar?
In 1994, Mutombo, Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf and LaPhonso Ellis led a connected Nuggets team to become the first 8-seed to beat a 1-seed, upsetting the top-seeded Seattle SuperSonics on defense rather than star scoring.
